Photographic-copying machine



April 21, 1931.-

A. w. CAPS 1,801,540

PHOTOGRAPHIC COPYING MACHINE Filed March 1. 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR flrZ/aa' WC6L s E BY ATTORNEYS April 21,1931. CAPS 1,801,540

PHOTOGRAPHIC COPYING MACHINE Filed March 1, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 %55 ATTORNEYS April 21, 1931. w, P 1,801,540

PHOTO'GRAPHIC COPYING MACHINE Filed March 1, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 J 66 mvENTolT" gfiiar W a p 1931- A. w. CAPS 1,801,540 PHOTOGRAPHIC cornue mourns Filed March 1, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Z as :58 INVENTOR 2'5 ATTORNEYS Patented Apr. 21, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT} OFFICE ARTHUR W. CAPS, OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO PHOTOSTAT CORPORA- TION, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, A CORPORATION OF RHODE ISLAND PHOTOGRAPHIC-GOPYING MACHINE Application filed March 1,

My present invention relates to photography, and more part1cularly to photographic copying cameras of the type gen erally referred to as copying cameras 5' which are used primarily for photographicallv copying for record documents and other articles. The invention has for its object the provision of a simply constructed and conveniently operated machine of th s char- 10 acter that will be compact and particularly adapted for uses in which the prints are not immediately or automatically developed but are accumulated in a dry state for future development. The improvements are further directed toward providing a mach ne of this character in connection with a darkroom from the interior of which the collected prints may be removed and treated. A feature of the invention is an arrangement- 3 i whereby a camera of the type that is focused by moving the body instead of the lens is so associated with a stationary drop box that the prints are delivered to the latter through a light tight panel whatever the position of 115 the body.

To these and other ends the invention resides in certain improvements and combinations of parts, all as will be hereinafter more fully described, the novel features being pointed out in the claims at the end of the specification.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side view of a photographic copying machine associated with a dark room, and constructed in accordance w1tl1 and illustrating one embodiment of my invention, a fragment of a dark room being shown in section;

F ig. 2 is an enlarged top plan view of the dark box beneath the camera body taken in horizontal section through the delivery chute;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary transverse vertical section through the dark box I and adjacent portions of the camera body taken. substantially on the lines 33 of Figs.

1 and 2:

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary longitu- I02 dinal central section through the dark box 1928. Serial No. 258,364.

and the lower portion of the camera body showing the parts in one position, and

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary View giving a part of the showing of Fig. 4 but with the parts in another position.

Similar reference numerals throughout the several views indicate the same parts.

I will first describe the general elements of the machine, the relative arrangements of which are well known in this class of camera, together with a general reference to the major elements of my new combination, as my invention is embodied therein.

Referring more particularly to Fig. 1, 1 indicates the table frame carrying suitable vertical guides 2 on the front thereof upon which guides may be adjusted vertically for focusing in connection with desired size ratios of reproduction a copyholder 3 carrying, in the present instance, a copy board 4 on which the documents to be copied are placed. Centered above the copyholder is the usual lens tube and prism 5 for collecting the rays and directing them at right angles through the axis of the camera to the focal plane thereof.

The lens tube is mounted on a front 6 which is carried by a bed 7 and is fixed with rela tion to supporting structure set for adjustments provided for the purpose of leveling and centering the lens. The body portion of the camera which is connected to the front 6 by bellows 8 consists of a front frame 9 and a rearward portion 10 hinged thereto to cooperate therewith in a plane just forward of the focal plane of the camera, which focal plane is indicated generally at 11. The body portion 10 may be swung open rearwardly to gain access to the focal plane and to the roll of sensitized material 12 which is drawn therethrough over guide rolls 13 by feed rolls 14 and 15 operated from the exterior by means of a. crank handle 16. \Vhen closed the two parts of the camera body are held tightly together by fastening devices 17. The camera body is moved back and forth on the bed 7 by means of a knob 18 on a shaft 19 extending through the body, and having a pinion thereon cooperating with a rack 20 on the bed. In Fig. 3 are shown rollers 21 on the side Walls of the camera body which supat 23. .T he bottom of the camera body 24 is,

7 provided with a delivery opening 25 just below the feeding mechanism, the roller 14- of which is turned'by the crank 16 before re ferred towhich carries the print or section of sensitized material out through'the opening 25 in measured quantity. Each sheet is severed from the continuous strip by suitable shearing knives 26 and 27, one of which is carried by a rack frame 28 to move back and forth across the opening 25. This rack frame is operated by a rocking gear segment 29 on a shaft 80 having an exteriorly arranged crank handle 31, by means of which it is operated.

' Supported in fixed position on the frame 1 below the bed 7 and its traveling camera body is a dark box 82. I use the term dark box in the familiar sense accepted in the photographic art as meaning a light tight receptacle or holding element for photo 'graphicaliy sensitive material. It is lined in the presentinstance asshown at'33 with black plush or velvet, and has an inclined deflecting wall 34 for directing prints fallingtherein toward its rearward end. This rearward end is removably telescoped into the frame 35 of a front opening in the wall of a dark room 36 adjacent to which the machine is placed, but from -which it may be withdrawn at will. The dark room opening is normally closed by a door 37 and suitable light tight-glands are proviced at 38 in the sliding joints between the two elements.

Referring more particularly to Figs. 2, 4 and 5, the bottom of the camera body 10 belowth'e bottom2 l before referred. to is provided with a partition 39 to prevent light from entering the camera through the opening 25. Extending through the partition and carried thereby is a chute to the upper end of: which cooperates with the delivery opening 25 in a relationship whereby it re ceives the prints issuing therefrom. The chute is preferably supported in this position by means of brackets 41 fixed in one of Lil the elements and secured to the other by screws, which when they are moved, allow of the removal of the chute. The lower end of the chute below the partition extends through apair of frames 42 and 43 which are superposed upon each other'and provided with felt or other pa ding at it to make a light tight connection. On each side of each frame, taken-forwardly and rearwardly of thecamera,is secured'one end of the flexible top covering for the dark boxpreferably in the form of a leather orfabric bellows piece 45. In each case theopposite end of the in Fig. 5. At the same time, the dark box is protected from the entrance of lightfrom above between the movable elements just as the interior of the camera body is protected from below by the partition.39..

Of course it would'be an obvious reversal ofparts gaining substantially the same effect to mount the carrying partition 39 for thechute on the top of the dark box and place the flexible element in its place in the camera body, except that the camera would always have to bebrought back to the same point before feeding and severing the print after exposure.

In the present instance frames 42 and 43 as best shown in Figs. 2 and 3 slide in suitable upper and lower ways on the frame 1 the upper ways in the present instance being formed by a Z-bracket 47, and the lower one by a bracket L8. A plate 49 held by the screws 50 of theupper way bracket intervenes between the two frames and makes it impossible for light to get around both of them through these ways.

I claim:

1. In a photographic copying machine, the combinationwith a dark box'having alight tight flexible collapsible and expansible top covering, of a camera body movable over the top covering and providedwith supporting and V delivering mechanism for sensitized sheets, and delivering means carried by the;

camera body and extending transversely of.

2. In aphotographic copying machine, the

combination with a dark box havingja light tight flexible top provided with a substantially centrally arranged sliding frame, the

flexible portions of the top on opposite sides of said frame bem resoectivel ada ted to 21 l y j collapse and expand as the frame is moved,v

of a camera body movable over the. box and provided with supporting and delivering mechanism for sensitized sheets, and a chute carried bythe camera body and extending through the frame in the fiexible top of the,

box to deliver the prints from the camera body into the box.

3. In a photographic copying machine, the combination with a dark box, of ways associated therewith, a frame movable on the ways across the dark box and collapsible and extensible bellows elements connecting the frame to parts fixed relatively to the box, a camera body movable over the box and provided with supporting and delivering mechanism for sensitized sheets, and a chute carried by the camera body and extending through the frame in the flexible top of the box to deliver the prints from the camera body into the box.

4. In a photographic copying machine, the combination with a dark box having a light tight top composed of a pair of substantially centrally arranged frames and a pair of flexible bellows elements connecting each frame at opposite sides thereof to parts relatively fixed with respect to the box, of guides associated with the box upon which the central frame moves, a camera body movable over the box and provided with supporting and delivering mechanism for sensitized sheets, and a chute carried by the camera body and extending through the frame in the flexible top of the box to deliver the prints from the camera body into the box.

5. In a photographic copying machine, the combination with a dark box having a light tight flexible top covering, of a camera body movable on the box over the covering and embodying a bottom and a partition member below the bottom, the bottom being provided with a print delivery opening, means for supporting sensitive material in the focal plane of the camera and for delivering the same a through the delivery opening therein and a chute extending through the partition member and su ported thereby, the upper end of the chute being arranged to cooperate with the delivery opening of the camera and the 5 lower end being extended transversely of its path of travel and transversely through the flexible top of the box to deliver prints into the latter.

6. In a photographic copying machine, the combination with a dark room and a dark box arranged exteriorly adjacent thereto but opening into the dark room, said dark box having a light tight flexible top covering, of

a camera body movable over the top covering and provided with supporting and delivering mechanism for sensitized sheets, and a chute carried by the camera body and extending transversely of its path of travel and transversely through the flexible top of the box to deliver the prints from the camera body into the latter.

ARTHUR W. CAPS. 

